| In 1915, Ruth wrote that the British soldiers liked to come to the Anzac facilities to see men treated equally with 'no class restrictions'. She was convinced that there would be less discipline problems in the British army if they were put on their honour and treated like Australian soldiers were. She deplored Australian soldiers taking commissions in the English army - Australians, she wrote, need our own army and own leaders and generals. By March 1915, Ruth was unwell with the painful nerve disorder [[wp>Neuralgia|neuralgia]], but continued to work because 'it's work I can do & work that is necessary ... [she was] not much good at nursing but I can make tea & coffee & cut sandwiches & make cakes.' By January 1916, she was sick of the more aristocratic VADs: 'Oh those ... aristocrats! How fussy & idiotic they are & how un-understanding'. Ruth gave an example: when one aristocratic VAD supervisor was told there was no water to make the men cups of tea, she told them to make cups of coffee instead! Ruth appreciated it was funny, but she was 'tired, angry & democratic & glad - furiously glad that I am a plebeian.' She went further: 'I'm a Red Republican - I'm a Socialist - I'm an Anarchist when I'm with these women ... I loathe class' and people who never do 'dirty work' and patronised the men. She was convinced that the Australian soldier was different to his British counterpart: 'Our soldiers are __men__. You see that they haven't been under the class system ...' but still, so many had experienced horrors that had left them 'sick & bitter'.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 4, folder 26.)) In October 1917 Ruth thought that the Australian army 'had an exceeding hard & bitter path ahead', mostly because the men were too thoughtful and intelligent for the 'fetish' of blind obedience'.((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 4, folder 26.)) Writing from the YWCA canteen in France a month later, she referred to her 'socialist blood boil[ing] red' due to injustice, and described herself in a way that showed she did not appreciate her father's efforts to re-establish his family as gentry: 'me, the red-blooded plebeian me'.((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 4, folder 26.))\\ | In 1915, Ruth wrote that the British soldiers liked to come to the Anzac facilities to see men treated equally with 'no class restrictions'. She was convinced that there would be less discipline problems in the British army if they were put on their honour and treated like Australian soldiers were. She deplored Australian soldiers taking commissions in the English army - Australians, she wrote, need our own army and own leaders and generals. By March 1915, Ruth was unwell with the painful nerve disorder [[wp>Neuralgia|neuralgia]], but continued to work because 'it's work I can do & work that is necessary ... [she was] not much good at nursing but I can make tea & coffee & cut sandwiches & make cakes.' By January 1916, she was sick of the more aristocratic VADs: 'Oh those ... aristocrats! How fussy & idiotic they are & how un-understanding'. Ruth gave an example: when one aristocratic VAD supervisor was told there was no water to make the men cups of tea, she told them to make cups of coffee instead! Ruth appreciated it was funny, but she was 'tired, angry & democratic & glad - furiously glad that I am a plebeian.' She went further: 'I'm a Red Republican - I'm a Socialist - I'm an Anarchist when I'm with these women ... I loathe class' and people who never do 'dirty work' and patronised the men. She was convinced that the Australian soldier was different to his British counterpart: 'Our soldiers are __men__. You see that they haven't been under the class system ...' but still, so many had experienced horrors that had left them 'sick & bitter'.((M-P papers, NLA MS 7801, Box 4, folder 26.)) In October 1917 Ruth thought that the Australian army 'had an exceeding hard & bitter path ahead', mostly because the men were too thoughtful and intelligent for the 'fetish' of blind obedience'.((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 4, folder 26.)) Writing from the YWCA canteen in France a month later, she referred to her 'socialist blood boil[ing] red' due to injustice, and described herself in a way that showed she did not appreciate her father's efforts to re-establish his family as gentry: 'me, the red-blooded plebeian me'.((M-P family papers, NLA, Box 4, folder 26.))\\ |